— 
north of England and the north of Ireland—is 
made, in the following terms, by Mr. Lawson :— 
“ Much has been said and written recommenda- 
tory of the cabbage tribe being more extensively 
subjected to field culture in this country, for 
feeding cattle, sheep, swine, and even poultry ; 
but, judging from any trials which have been 
-made, as well as from the natural habits of the 
whole tribe, their culture seems only likely to 
be attended with any chance of decided advan- 
tage on the most superior class of soils, particu- 
larly on such as are of rather strong texture, and 
where an abundant supply of manure can be 
| had; and even in many such cases, it is ques- 
tionable how far they ought to be preferred to 
| turnips, over which, however, they possess the 
advantage of improving rather than deteriorat- 
| ing the quality of the milk of cows fed upon 
them, and also of growing freely on lands which 
are too stiff in texture for the growth of any 
| sort of turnips.” A crop of open-headed cab- 
bages has also the advantage of being easily ac- 
cessible during frost and snow; and a crop of 
any kind of cabbages is almost certain to be 
more valuable than an average crop of turnips, 
under the present system of turnip-culture in 
the south and centre of England. Cabbage- 
| culture on the whole, however, requires an un- 
_ usual combination of warmth and moisture, in- 
curs much risk from drought and insects, and is 
both exhausting to the soil and drastic upon the 
farmer’s capital; and, in consequence, it con- 
| tinues to be quite unknown in the field-hus- 
_ bandry of many districts of Great Britain, and, 
| except in comparatively rare instances, is not 
_ conducted upon an extensive scale in any. Yet 
Arthur Young, in his survey of Suffolk, says, 
| that “he has seen from 40 to 70 acres of cab- 
_ bages on a farm, every year, for several years ;” 
_ and Mr. Marshall, in his Rural Economy of the 
Midland Counties, says, “ Among the ram-breed- 
ers of Leicestershire, cabbages may be said to be 
already established as a prevalent crop, and there 
/ is one man within this district who has grown 
_ ten, twelve, or fourteen acres a-year, for many 
years past.” One reason why cabbages have ac- 
quired the reputation of being a very exhausting 
crop, 1s the censurable practice of leaving the 
roots and a considerable portion of the stems for 
a considerable time in the ground, and of there- 
fore allowing them to throw out sprouts, and to 
rob the soil of a large portion of its most nourish- 
ing juices; and another reason is the equally 
| censurable practice of permitting some of the 
open-headed kinds to run up into flower-stems, 
and in consequence to act most impoverishingly 
upon the soil. Cabbages are much relished by 
_ cattle ; and, when used with some good hay, 
either for stall-feeding or for the dairy, they are 
found to be very decidedly nutritious, whole- 
some, and economical. They are better liked 
than turnips by hogs, and are well adapted to 
the rearing of calves and the feeding of broken- 
CABBAGE. 
607 | 
mouthed sheep and cattle. According to Mr. 
Sinclair’s analyses, one pound of drumhead cab- 
bage contains 430 grains of nutritive matter and 
280 grains of fibre, one pound of early York cab- 
bage contains 430 grains of nutritive matter and 
312 grains of fibre, one pound of purple borecole 
contains 448 grains of nutritive matter and 1,120 
grains of fibre, and one pound of Kohl-rabi con- 
tains 251 grains of nutritive matter and 360 
grains of fibre; and the average amount of the 
nutritive matter of cabbages is superior to that 
of common turnips in the proportion of 215 to 
160, and inferior to that of Swedish turnips in 
the proportion of 215 to 220. 
Single cabbages are frequently obtained of so 
great size as to weigh thirty or even forty pounds ; 
but the average cabbages of a crop, even on the 
best soil and under the best culture, can rarely 
be produced of one-third of that size. If an 
average of twenty pounds could be obtained, and 
a space of one square yard were assigned to each | 
plant, and no blanks to occur from careless plant- | 
ing, bad culture, or the attacks of disease, the 
produce per acre would amount to the magnifi- 
cent figure of forty-three tons; but the actual 
average produce amounts in common estimation 
to only thirty tons, and probably amounts, in 
most circumstances, to not more than twenty | 
tons.——When cabbages are removed late in au- 
tumn, or early in summer, the valuation for 
them, at the quitting of a farm, is the same as 
for turnips drawn and consumed elsewhere than | 
upon the field; but when they are allowed to re- 
main so long as to rob the land of a portion of 
its sustenance, they suffer a deduction according | 
to the discretion of the valuers—A method of | 
cultivating cabbages as a joint crop with beans, | 
is noticed in our article on Brans. 
Cabbages are subject to the same diseases as 
turnips, both from the attacks of insects upon 
the young plants, and from the formation of an- 
bury in the roots; and they are subject, in their 
advanced state, to a fearful amount of devasta- 
tion from the caterpillars of two species of but- 
terflies. See the articles Turnip-Fiy, AnBury, 
and Burrmerriy. A disease in the roots of cab- 
bages, known to all cultivators under the name 
of clubbing, is occasioned by the deposition of 
the eggs of an insect at the junction-joint of the 
roots and the stem. The organization is dam- 
aged, the flow of the sap is partially arrested, the 
bottom of the stem swells, and the plant becomes 
sickly, and cannot grow to maturity. This dis- || 
ease occurs principally on ground which has been 
frequently cropped with cabbages; and seldom || 
or but mildly makes its appearance on land which 
is cropped with a many-membered rotation. One 
preventive or cure of it is to mix the top-soil 
with a half-inch stratum of charcoal dust; an- | 
other is to apply quicklime and withhold man- | 
ure; a third is to trench the land, and expose it 
in ridges to the frosts of winter; and a fourth 
and most effectual is to combine the last of these 
el 
